


The Power of Love

by fembuck



Series: The Nun's Nest [6]
Category: Warrior Nun (TV)
Genre: F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:47:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25514506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fembuck/pseuds/fembuck
Summary: The new plan has the team heading back to Italy, but things don’t go exactly as planned.
Relationships: Sister Beatrice/Ava Silva
Series: The Nun's Nest [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824703
Comments: 33
Kudos: 554





	The Power of Love

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place after “Codes and Wake Up Calls”.

The first thing they had agreed when coming up with an alternate plan, was that hiding and waiting was no longer an effective strategy. They had to be proactive. They needed to try and take some control of the situation, which meant they had to leave France and the temporary sanctuary Jillian had provided for them.

The second thing that became clear to them was that they would need to return to Italy. They needed to be properly equipped if they were going to go to battle with Adriel, and that meant they needed access to divinium. Outside of the OCS, the only source of divinium that they knew of was the tarask skeleton that Ava had discovered in the walls while making her way to Adriel’s tomb.

They knew from new reports that reconstruction efforts on the part of Vatican city they had blown the bottom out of had not commenced yet. This meant that there was a good chance that they could access that part of the catacombs again and hopefully extract the tarask skeleton. They also still had the detailed maps of Vatican city’s underground tunnels, caverns, vaults, and tombs, which they could use to track down other objects or writings that could aid their mission.

The catacombs were also likely one of the last places their enemies were likely to search for them, and even if they thought to check, there was no way to effectively search the entirety of the interconnected system of tunnels. There were plenty of places to hide down in the darkness, and thanks to the maps they knew where and how to stealthily access them.

Once they figured out what resources they could get their hands on, they’d then discuss their next steps.

For the first phase of the operation, it seemed pretty sound. Unfortunately for them, after they crossed the border into Italy, things got … complicated.

How they were tracked, and who sent their attackers were still unknown, but somebody had thrown a spike stripe across the back country road they had been traveling, and while Mary had been able to manage avoid driving over it and taking out all of their tires thanks to Lilith and her post-Other Side improved eyesight, Mary had done so by turning the van off of the road and into a nearby field.

“Mercenaries,” Mary determined, watching the figures dressed in black approach through the rear view mirror, no cross, habit, or other religious iconography visible on them.

Their guns were out, but the barrels were pointed down as they crept forward.

“Well, that’s a blessing at least,” Beatrice murmured, relieved that they did not yet have to face their sisters in combat.

“What do we do?” Camila asked, her gaze focused on the masked men visible through the passenger side mirror.

“Surrender,” Beatrice stated matter-of-factly, remaining unphased when four sets of eyes turned to stare at her. “I mean the appearance of it, of course. Once they’ve been lured close enough, we can disarm them.”

“Won’t they be ready for that?” Ava asked, not so concerned for herself as she was for her companions who could not rapidly heal.

“They’ve no doubt been told we’re dangerous,” Mary began, “But they’re also men, and we’re women, and nuns. They won’t consider us a real threat, not until it’s too late.”

They opened the doors of the van, and filed out, hands up in the air as they walked towards the dusty curb as night began to take over the sky. Placing their hands behind their heads, they then knelt on the ground and waited.

“Stand up!” one of the mercenaries demanded, shoving the nozzle of his rifle into Lilith’s shoulder.

Lilith looked up at his masked face, calm and cold, and then there was a blur of movement as her arm shot out, divinium claws out, tearing easily through the man’s clothes … and then chaos.

The mercenaries hesitated for a moment, not quite sure what was happening, and this moment of distraction gave the other sisters an opportunity to attack.

Ava found it hard to keep track of everyone’s movements and positions once the close quarters combat began due to really, really, really, trying not to be stabbed. The knives some of the mercenaries had unsheathed had a very familiar blue tint to them, which meant divinium, which meant no standing there and letting the slashes phase through her. Luckily, she had been paying attention during her training sessions at the Nun’s Nest, and Lilith was a good training partner, not to mention a surprisingly good instructor now that she wasn’t seething with jealousy and resentment because Ava was bearing the halo and not her.

She was still nowhere near as skilled as her companions, but the halo made her stronger and faster than her opponents which helped make up for her lack of form and experience.

A gunshot sounded, and Ava’s head automatically swung in the direction of the sound, just in time to see Beatrice’s body jerk backwards. 

Time seemed to slow as Ava watched Beatrice stumble back, shot, wounded, unable to defend herself as the mercenary lifted his gun to line up another shot.

In that moment, all Ava cared about, all she could focus on, all she could feel, was the desire to protect Beatrice, to be beside her, to make that man pay for daring to so much as point a gun at her, let alone actually pull the trigger. 

Ava felt something, tugging at her, pulling her towards where she wanted to be, towards where she needed to be, towards… 

...and then Ava was there, positioned between Beatrice and the mercenary, her arm extended towards the man as the halo blazed angrily. 

A pulse of light extended from Ava’s outstretched arm, surging through the air with the unforgiving force of a crashing wave, flattening the bullet the mercenary had fired before the force reached the man himself, sending him flying backwards.

Ava turned, the light from the halo refracting around her in a way that created the illusion of wings. 

There was only one mercenary left standing. He was facing her, no doubt shocked and confused by what he had just seen, and as she stared at him, Ava felt the same force from before tugging at her again, and she lifted her hand, pointing it towards him.

However, before Ava could release another pulse of energy, Mary used the mercenary’s distraction to her advantage and smashed the butt of a rifle into his temple. 

The man folded like a cake, crumpling to the ground, and Ava felt the tugging sensation fade, and then leave her altogether.

Immediately, she turned to Beatrice, who to her immense relief was on her feet.

“Are you okay?” Ava asked anxiously, her eyes still scanning Beatrice’s body for any other injuries as the halo’s glow became fainter and fainter. “Where did he…?”

“I’m fine,” Beatrice breathed out, as Ava touched her face gently. “It’s just a flesh wou…” Beatrice continued, hoping to reassure Ava.

However, before Beatrice could finish her sentence, Ava had stepped into her body, and heedless of their audience, tilted her head up and pressed her lips against Beatrice’s, the halo beginning to glow anew as Ava’s arm wrapped around Beatrice’s waist, holding her close. 

Somewhere, deep in the recesses of Ava’s mind, she knew that there was a reason she shouldn’t be kissing Beatrice. But Ava’s brain wasn’t in control of her actions then, her heart was, and her heart … ached. It ached for comforting warmth and press of Beatrice’s body against hers. It ached for Beatrice to be safe, and whole, and well, no wounds or bruises causing her pain. 

The mercenary who lay closest to Camila groaned, drawing her attention away from Ava and Beatrice as the light from the halo continued to glow brighter, absolutely enveloping Beatrice and Ava as they kissed. Camila looked down at the man, lifted her booted foot, and then slammed it into the mercenary’s jaw, knocking him back out, cold.

“What kinda Disney shit is this?” Mary asked, as the halo’s glow became so bright she and the others were forced to actually avert their eyes.

And then, all of a sudden, the light vanished, plunging them into semi-darkness as night continued to claim the sky.

Once spots were no longer dancing in their eyes, Mary and Camila walked over to where Beatrice and Ava were standing.

“Doesn’t your arm hurt?” Camila asked when she and Mary were close enough to Ava and Beatrice to speak at a regular volume. 

Ava’s hand was gripping Beatrice's arm in the same place Beatrice’s hand had previously been pressed in order to stem the flow of blood from the bullet that grazed her. 

Beatrice blinked, following Camila’s gaze to her arm. 

“No,” she said, blinking rapidly, suddenly confused. “It doesn’t.” Beatrice paused for a moment, taking stock of how the rest of her body felt. “Nothing hurts, actually,” she continued, looking over at the others with bewilderment as she realized she didn’t feel any of the usual post-battle aches and bruises.

Ava, whose hand was still on Beatrice’s arm, brushed her thumb over the part of Beatrice’s shirt that was still wet with blood, but the action did not cause Beatrice any distress. Ava then leaned in, taking a closer look at the area, and she could see nothing but smooth skin.

“There’s no wound,” Ava breathed out, gazing up at Beatrice before turning to face the others. “If it wasn’t for the rip in the shirt and the blood, you’d never know she’d been shot.”

“It must have been the halo, then,” Lilith offered, looking over at Ava curiously, “even though…”

“We’ve never seen the halo used that way before,” Mary finished for her, frowning.

“I don’t get it. How did she recharge so quickly?” Camila asked, certain that Ava had accessed the halo’s power enough that it should have been significantly drained, certainly enough that some period of recovery would have been required before Ava could tap into the large amounts of energy self-healing required. 

“Training?” Ava suggested, confused herself but willing to accept whatever was going on since it had helped Beatrice. Besides, over the past month she’d gotten pretty good at rolling with science fiction/fantasy shit that had become her life. If the halo wanted to invent new powers to save her love, then she was cool with just accepting it. 

Lilith scoffed. “You haven’t trained that much,” she pointed out, smirking when Ava made a face at her.

“Maybe something caused the halo to fast-charge somehow,” Camila suggested. “Like powering up in Mario Kart.”

“If so,” Beatrice began contemplatively, “what was the … Golden Mushroom, if you will, that powered her up?”

“I’m going to deal with this,” Lilith called out to them, gesturing with her hand at the men scattered on the ground around them. 

The mercenaries were still unconscious, but there was no telling when one or more of them might begin to awake.

“Deal with it how?” Mary asked, head whipping around to face Lilith.

“Don’t worry,” Lilith responded lightly, smiling at Mary before she bent down over one of the mercenaries, rising a moment later to show Mary her hand which was full of zip ties. “Do you approve?” Lilith asked.

“Yeah, you’re good,” Mary said, before shaking her head at Lilith a little. 

The woman could be such a little shit at times. 

“I’ve got it … maybe,” Camila was saying as Mary turned her attention back to the discussion happening about halo somehow healing Beatrice.

“Well,” Mary prompted.

“The halo started brightening again when Ava was fussing over Beatrice,” Camila continued, ignoring the ‘I don’t know if fussing is the right word’ look Ava shot her. “And then, when they were, uh, expressing their feelings,” she went on, as tactfully as she could, “the halo really started to glow. So, maybe, the external source that was powering the halo while...” Camila paused, searching for the right words.

“They were wearing each other’s lips,” Mary interjected helpfully.

“Sure,” Camila replied, grateful for the assist. “When they were doing that, your strong emotions,” she continued, focusing her gaze on Ava, “were what charged the halo. Like maybe, it was literally, being powered by … love,” Camila finished, placing her hands together over her heart as gazed softly between Ava and Beatrice.

“The power of love?” Mary asked skeptically, looking over at Camila. “That’s what you’re bringing to the table? Celine Dion?” 

“Do you have an alternate theory?” Camila asked, lifting her chin up challengingly.

“No,” Mary muttered, “but how could a feeling physically power something?”

“It has actually been postulated,” Beatrice began, slowly, thoughtfully, obviously still working through her thoughts as she spoke, “That love could be a physical force. A field, like gravity, electricity, magnetism...” she continued. 

“If this idea has substance to it, then it could, theoretically, be possible for the halo could tap into that elemental field to recharge,” Beatrice concluded, looking at Ava with awe, struggling to fully wrap her mind around the idea that Ava feel so much for that, that she was worthy of being loved, let alone loved that much. 

She had spent so long hating herself, trying to pray away the soft, tender, feelings that were responsible for so much of the disdain she had become accustomed to seeing in her parents eyes. For so long, who and how she loved had been her greatest shame, and yet now, that same kind of love was so powerful and pure that it had physically healed her wounds. 

“Incoming,” Lilith called out before giving one of the zip-tied mercenaries a good shove with her boot, sending him rolling into the ditch just beyond where the others were standing. “They’re all tied up, but I could use a little help here,” she continued, gesturing around at the other bodies. “They’re not going to roll themselves into the ditch.”

Mary was more than happy to peace out of the conversation, and the complex emotions that had started whirl inside of her. Kicking assholes into ditches sounded like just the distraction she needed, and so, she headed over to the nearest unconscious body. 

Camila lingered for a second, the expression on her face giving away how much she desperately wanted to say more, but Camila knew in her heart that she should Ava and Beatrice some time alone to talk and process everything, so she simply offered them a smile and then walked away as well.

“Well,” Ava began after Camila had moved out of earshot. “Obviously, this wasn’t how imagined the ‘I love you’ conversation going, but … I do,” she confirmed, gazing up into Beatrice’s eyes. “And I know we haven’t been together, like together-together for long, and …”

Ava’s rambling was cut short as Beatrice leaned down and kissed her, slowly, tenderly, every second of contact aching sweetly with love.

“I love you too,” she breathed out when she pulled back from Ava’s lips, not wanting Ava to have a moment of doubt about that. And then, Beatrice smiled, openly and brightly, before repeating the words with reverence and awe. “I love you too.”

The End

To be continued in Part 7!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> And thank you again for the encouragement your comments have given me during the creation of this series! You all are amazing, and encouraging, and I love you like Ava loves poolside brunch :)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this latest addition to the series! And as always, comments are welcome and greatly appreciated!


End file.
